Mark’s Kaddy Korner

By the time I’d gathered my luggage and boarded the Houston-Hobby airport rental car shuttle bus my long sleeve t-shirt was drenched with sweat. Our rather rotund bus driver announced, “Don’t worry honey, you ain’t gonna havta worry about the heat, it’s fixin’ to get real cold this afternoon. I can’t wait; I’m tired of sweating this year.” She was right; Houston experienced some God awful weather the next five days.

Rachel (Hetherington) wanted to get an early start Monday morning but it did us absolutely no good. A Noreaster’ was blowing, the course played the exact opposite of the prevailing wind, and we struggled through the front nine. Every par four playing directly into the wind was unreachable and the downwind holes you couldn’t hold the ball on the Bermuda greens. The ten year old Houstonian course was in great shape but unplayable in the forty mile winds.

Heading out for a single week you try to pack as light as possible but this week was impossible. Temperatures were in the forties early in the week and rain canceled play for almost two days. You basically live in your rain suit for the week blocking the cold and shielding the wind. Thursday evening the rain started and didn’t let up till Saturday morning with a few windows of dry air.

During inclement weather the LPGA tour official’s monitor the weather conditions, the course playability, and determine when to start and stop play during a round. It’s a tough job, sometimes Mother Nature plays a few tricks and they blow a call to suspend play. Friday morning play was suspended on the forecast of rain after observing Doppler radar. The storm dissipated, the girls could have played for almost four hours, and the weakest field of the year playing for the LPGA Tour Championship was shortened to 54 holes finishing on Monday

We had the lucky side of the draw, played eighteen Thursday morning then didn’t tee it up again until Sunday afternoon. We played with a couple of fiery competitive youngsters, Morgan Pressel and Stacy Lewis, who drew large crowds and taught me a few new words under their breath after chunking a chip or three putting. It was nice to see a little personality show up in the fairway; the foreign robots don’t draw much of a crowd.

Darkness threatened our finish Sunday evening and Morgan led a charge across the seventeenth bridge, sprinting for the green egging the others on, and then chastising the caddies while she tended the pin for Stacy. We were the last to finish, the crowd loved the act, and we got an extra couple hours of sleep Monday while the rest of the field teed it up at 7 a.m.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the Houston golf fans, volunteers, and tournament staff at the Champions Tour event at the Woodlands, well the crew here was their equal if not better. Despite the weather conditions the crowds were huge, the volunteers had smiling faces and helping hands, and the tournament staff kept things running smoothly. I noticed a few guys napping in the cart barn one afternoon; twenty hour days of volunteer work tends to wear a guy down, I guess.

They went all out to make this tournament work and all the LPGA could provide was the weakest field of the year. Most of the top players were there but overall the field went deep into the eligibility list. A few of the players had only played in a handful of tournaments all year and one girl qualified for the LPGA Tour Championship with $3,000. I guess it’s the state of affairs the new “commish” needs to deal with and he was here witnessing the event. The scuttlebutt around the driving range was a wait-and-see thumbs up for Michael Whan, he’s got a challenging job before him.

It’s the last tournament of the year and we had our chance going into the final round but Rachel developed a crick in her neck just before the round. The tour physical therapists worked on her for about a half hour but you could tell her swing wasn’t right all day. We went from T-30 to the end of the line with a 76. It’s tough to watch, especially the last round of the year, but that’s golf.

There’s a couple of irons in the fire for next year, right now I’m heading north for a little R&R, some hunting, and get lost in the woods for awhile. I’ll try to work something up each week but it may be spotty, please bear with me.

Take care and have a great Turkey Day. Wish I was up there hunting right now.

Mark